Mercury Motor Oil (Quicksilver) Is it worth it?

islanderguy

islanderguy

Member
Since I'm not a marine mechanic, I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there's any real difference between the marine 10W30 motor oil by Mercury was any different than a brand name oil like Quakerstate or Castrol?

At about $8 / liter for the Mercury brand I was hoping that I was getting something more than just a Mercury label on a Canadian Tire container of oil.

Thanks in advance.
 
That's a good question. I have been running mercury 2 stroke motors for the last 6 years, I also wanted to know if there was any difference between the Can tire brand "Nautelus" or however it's spelled, and the Mercury brand. I went to my mechanic and asked him, he quickly showed me a motor that had been running the cheaper stuff. The pistons show signs of sludge and burned looking oil all the way down the sides of the pistons that over time will $#%@ up the rings as they go up and down and eventually cause blow by and low compression. Well then it's rebuild time. He showed me another motor running the good stuff, and well it looked great. In one season of running the cheap stuff, if you run your motor hard you can lower the compression by up to 15 lbs per cylinder. Cheaper stuff can't take the heat. My 2cents.
 
I read your post wrong. Your running a 4 stroke. I'd call a marine mechanic on that one. Preferabley one that works from home and is not biased to One brand or another.
 
I dont know about the 4 stroke oil but I sure can tell you one thing with running good 2 stroke oil this past summer we had to tear apart my opti max for a bit of matenance it was going through gas bad and running really rough my merc man siad right away "REEDS" so he brought some out and it is in the front of the engine takes it apart and wow there you see the crank pistons every thing it was spotless in there almost like it was brand new was very very surprised all he said was thats what good oil does keeps it all clean!!!!!I didnt even see a speck of carbon on any thing not even on the back end of a piston so I can tell you I am COMPLETLLY sold on running good oil from now on after seeing that!!


Wolf
 
I've thrown a lot of oils at my F225, the Synthetics seem to make it "feel" better. THe genuine Yamaha oils fail the BITOG blotter tests miserably at 50 hours, Castrol GTX was pretty darn close to the synthetics in this area, but with the price of dino oils going up, synthetic is pretty close. The "blotter" test is far from a complete benchmark for oils, but is a real eye opener on how long they last before breakdown, and to a lesser extent, how well your filter is trapping solids.

My $0.02
 
quote:Originally posted by wolf

I dont know about the 4 stroke oil but I sure can tell you one thing with running good 2 stroke oil this past summer we had to tear apart my opti max for a bit of matenance it was going through gas bad and running really rough my merc man siad right away "REEDS" so he brought some out and it is in the front of the engine takes it apart and wow there you see the crank pistons every thing it was spotless in there almost like it was brand new was very very surprised all he said was thats what good oil does keeps it all clean!!!!!I didnt even see a speck of carbon on any thing not even on the back end of a piston so I can tell you I am COMPLETLLY sold on running good oil from now on after seeing that!!


Wolf
Click to expand...

But would one not expect the carbon to be on the OTHER side of the pistons, and the exhuast ports where the burning is? On a two stroke, the crank/reeds area had BETTER be clean beacause nothing gets sprayed at it but nice clean gas (Which will dissolve just about any black crud in an engine), and of course, your 2 stroke lube which is used sparingly in a modern DI engine anyway.

Of course, with what these engines cost (I'm going to barf when I sign for my new ones next week, I know it), it would be prudent to run an oil a few notches up from the stuff in the NAPA clearance bin anyway.
 
quote:Originally posted by islanderguy

Since I'm not a marine mechanic, I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there's any real difference between the marine 10W30 motor oil by Mercury was any different than a brand name oil like Quakerstate or Castrol?

At about $8 / liter for the Mercury brand I was hoping that I was getting something more than just a Mercury label on a Canadian Tire container of oil.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

You might want to take a LONG read at Bob is the oil guy http://www.bobistheoilguy.com/ in the forums. There ARe differences in oils, there are some real minds on here that will answer a lot of questions for you. I've picked up a lot by reading there. Wait untill you see his picture demonstrations with Lucas Oil Stabilizer, and synthetic gear old. Definatly not lab conditions, but a great read. YOu'll know what a TBN is and everything if you don't go crosseyed first LOL!
 
Don't want to hijack the thread here,just to add to what Wolf said,I just sold my other boat,there was some weepage on the head gaskets so we changed them out. When we had it apart the pistons and combustion chambers were absoutely like new,I've run nothing but the Yamaha 2 stroke oil for the life of the motor[94 yamaha]That sold me on using the good stuff.After seeing that I'm going to run whatever yamaha recomends in my new 4 stroke,pay me now or pay me later.DAN
 
I know that kelly but I was talking about how in the old days on the back part of the pistons you used to see carbon and a slight brown tinge to the "fins" of the piston right below the connecting rod!! thats all what I was trying to say ;) just to clear that up!!!
bye the way congrats on the new boat you lucky ba@#@rd LOL LOL

Wolf
 
A while back I tried the cheap stuff in my two stroke and it didn't run as well. I think you get more smoke and sludge with cheaper oil. In addition to now using the best Merc oil, this year I stared using a Mercury product for two strokes called "Quick Clean." And recently when I looked at my spark plugs after almost a season of use, for the first time they were clean! [^]

The motor is still running great so I don't think I'll bother changing the plugs for another season.
 
I ran quicksilver and a cheaper brand of oil ( Sieherria). When i would be playing a fish i would put the engine in N the smoke from sieherria brand oil would make a big cloud and would force me to put it in drive to escape the smoke. Then i ran the quicksilver oil and put the engine in N and made alot less smoke. But its also alot more $$$
 
Thanks for your comments guys. This oil was for my 4 strokes.

As expedted, the Mercury Dealer was recommending the Merc Quicksilver oil at $8 / litre rather than your typical Costco name brand oil at about $2.50 / litre. The Merc brand is supposed to have more "anti-corrosion" qualities. Doesn't all oil prevent rust and corrosion?
 
Hey Island guy. I am not sure here, but I am thinking the Merc oil @ 8.00$ a litre is probably a full synthetic oil over the Costco oil that is a synthetic blend @ 2.50$. I found out the difference the other day when I was changing oil in the wifes pickup. Full synthetic @ Can Tire was still about 6.00$ a litre. As far as 2 strokes go, I have to agree with the other posts. I have twin 150 HPDI Yami's on my boat, due to poor planning I had to run some Chevron 2 stroke oil in in them. They seemed to run OK , but smoked more on start up and @ idiling. Might seem minor but I am sure it would have a long term effect.
 
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